Would not like to be put in dock for alleged proximity to any political entity: EC to Mamata Banerjee

The Election Commission has taken offence at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s letter which asked it to address grievances of all political parties and ‘not to be guided by a particular dispensation’. EC on Tuesday said it was an attempt to ‘belittle’ the institution with repeated ‘innuendos and averments’ and objected to Trinamool allegation of EC’s ‘proximity to a political entity’.

ET was the first to report that the poll panel was preparing an advisory to the Trinamool Congress over its allegations, including questioning its neutrality.

Following EC’s March 14 orders transferring a clutch of state government officials, including CM’s security director Vivek Sahay for lapses that led to her injury in Nandigram, Banerjee had in a letter to CEC Sunil Arora sought Sahay’s reinstatement and said the transfers would create a ‘vacuum’ and ‘compromise’ her security. In reply, deputy election commissioner Sudeep Jain sent a 4-page demi-official letter to Banerjee on Tuesday, which listed EC’s meetings with Trinamool representatives in Kolkata on December 17 and January 21 and in New Delhi on March 3 and 12.


“Notwithstanding the above meetings in Kolkata and in Delhi, if it is stated by honourable CM that the commission should meet political parties, it is only an attempt to belittle the institution of the commission with repeated innuendos and averments,” Jain’s letter said. The letter said that EC did not like being ‘put in the dock for alleged proximity to any political entity’.

“However, if honourable CM persists in creating and attempting to perpetuate this myth for reasons best known to her, it is slightly unfortunate, and it is only for honourable CM to adjudge as to why she is doing so,” Jain’s letter said. It reiterated Sahay’s suspension was based on reports of EC observers and the West Bengal chief secretary. It said the CS posted Gyanwant Singh as the CM’s security director and it would have needed the CM’s approval. Singh was also relocated by EC during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was recently transferred by the state government, the letter said.